E74 
.03 P3 
1870 



AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES: 

READ BT5FvORE A .TOIXT MKETING OF THE 

PIONEER ASSOCIATIONS 



OF THE COUNTIES OF 



"» ft 

mvkhi llnfjlragiim mil Jwliiig, 



AT THEIE 



CIELEBRATION OF THE NATIONAL ANNIVERSARY, 



AT 



Jpataskaia, m)io, Inig 4, 1S70. 



SY SAMUEL PARK, ESQ., 



OF MARSHALL, ILLINOIS. 



TERRE-HAUTE : 

,0. J. SMITH & OO,, STEAM BOOK AND JOB I'^^INTEKS. 



1870, 



En 



AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. 



When called upon by Mr. Smucker, Secretary of the "Licking County 
P ioneer Association," to treat more fully in my Pioneer Papers on this 
mysterious fort and mound question, I said, and thought, that there was 
nothing in that on which I could write an article that would be of any in- 
terest to the public. It was a subject on which I had read and thought but 
little, and what little attention I had given to the subject, had impressed 
upon my mind the impropriety of any attempt on my part to penetrate the 
darkness or solve the mystery with which they are surrounded ; because 
men of science, and the most profound antiquarians of our land had ex- 
hausted their skill in vain research to solve the mystery of their existence ; 
military men had searched in vain, for a system of tactics adapted to their 
situation and character. Almost every effort had but tended to increase 
the mystery and intensify the gloom with which they were surrounded. 
Hence I dreaded to say anything about them, further than to merely men- 
tion the fact of their existence in a portion of Union Township. But this 
did not seem to satisfy Mr. Smucker. He thought the subject had not 
been exhausted, and wanted a paper on the mound question." Having 
been quite familiar, in early life, with the location of several fine mounds 
in the northeast part of Union, as well as a few in Granville Township, 
and knowing that some of them afforded a fine prospect of Licking Valley, 
I determined to ascend to the top of one on my old farm, (now the Licking 
County Infirmary Farm), and look for something to write about. 

When I reached the summit of the mound, I was astonished at the 
change that had taken place since I last visited that elevation, some twenty 
years ago. Much of the timber had been removed from the surrounding 
country, especially to the west, which had greatly extended the view from 
this point. While sitting on this elevated tumulus and contemplating the 
beauty of the scenery, I began to call to mind the several mounds with 
which I had been familiar in other years, within a radius of two to three 
miles, and being well acquainted with the topography of the surrounding 
country, I w^as astonished to see that they occupied so nearly a common 
level on the hilltops, and that, with a little more timber removed, all were 
in plain view from the position I then occupied ; and further, that of some 
ten or more that I could then call to mind on a territory of some twenty- 
five or thirty square miles, nearly if not quite all of them could be seen 
from each and all the others ; and further, that while there was an extensive 
common view to all of them, yet each mound overlooked a valley or plain, 
more or less of which could not be seen from any other one. To make 
this more clear, let me specify a few cases, to-wit : From the position we 
now occupied, we had a delightful prospect of the country for many miles 
around us, extending west into Harrison Township, north into Granville, 
and to the east and southeast the whole Licking Valley was spread out be- 



.4 



fore us. Looking over the numerous hilltops of Hog Eun and Up]3er 
Clay Lick, the sight was lost in the hilltops beautifull}- delineated on the 
horizon, extending in a semi-circle from the hills of the Eocky Fork to the 
Coal Hills of Perry county, while the special view from this mound, and 
not to be seen from any other, lies to the northwest. Three or four mounds 
on a ridge along the line between Union and Granville Townships command 
the yie^y, respectively, of deep valleys lying on the north and south sides of 
this ridge, while one on Stephen Gill's farm, and others on the farms of 
Aaron Hillbrant, ^Irs. Owens, Mr. Jones and John Haynes, South of 
Auter Creek, and others on the lands of F. Dunle\n»^, Wesley Belt, Henry 
L3^tle, and others north of the railroad, each and all have their special 
views not to be seen from any other mound, and still are all in plain view 
from the mound above L'nion Station on the Infirmary Farm. Those 
mounds are all situated on high hills, but we have found since that there 
are many other mounds on the same territory, generally situated on slight 
elevations at the head of ra%dnes, on the banks of streams, &c. 

The discovery of these peculiarities began to open a new train of thoughts 
on the mound question, and begat a desire for further investigation. We 
next visited some of the hills north of the Eaccoon Valley ; among which 
was Fort Hill, so called. This is one of the highest elevations belonging to 
this range of hiUs, and overlooks a considerable district to the northeast, as 
well as an extensive portion of the Eaccoon Valley. On the top of this 
hill we found a fort enclosing some fourteen to sixteen acres of land, and 
in the middle of it another with a deep moat inside of the wall, which was 
less than one hundred feet in diameter. The inside of this is considerably 
elevated but appears to have been dug down by some person seeking for 
treasure or curiosities. We have often been surprised at the vain hopes 
of some persons that they might find a fortune in some of these mounds. 
Can any sane person fox a moment indulge the thought that there ever 
was a people cr nation so ignorant as to erect such conspicuous piles to se- 
crete treasure, with any hope of its safety I Nor since silver and gold has 
been used by man as the representative of wealth, have we any account of 
any nation or tribe that buried with their dead any considerable amount of 
the precious metals, or anything else of lasting value. It is all lost labor 
to seek in such places for treasure or valuable jewels, for they are not there. 
These works were raised for no such purpose. There may be found a few 
trinkets, placed tliere with their dead, a thousand years since the erection 
of the mounds, by some of the wandering tribes of our native Indians, 
but beyond this you might us vfell seek for the treasures of Babylon in its 
ruins, or for the gold of Solomon's Temple that so dazzled the eyes and as- 
tonished the rich Queen of Sheba, or that excited the covetousness of the 
Assjrrian hosts, by a search among the rubbish of that ruined pile, as to 
seek among these monuments for the treasures of these ancient Americans. 
We must find some other use for these works more in harmony with the 
human mind, or of its conception of the nature and relation of things, 
than that of treasure tombs or military works, or acknowledge that we 
knew nothing about them. We shall assume that they are the monuments 
of a CYvil government, with but little of the military or mortuary char- 
acter about them, and will try our theory by the works themselves, and 
leave it to others to judge of its plausibility. 

We imxt visited "Ah o'a tor Hiil." H,ere we found quite a curiosity. It 



o 



is a pretty fair artificial representation of the aligator, or great American 
crocodile. We did not measure this singular tumulus, but would suppose 
it to be about two hundred feet long, and the length of its legs from forty- 
five to fifty feet each. Its tail is curled to one side, and its length from the 
juncture of the legs is some one hundred feet. It is situated on a high hill, 
and afibrds a fine prospect of the surrounding country. This animal-shaped 
tumulus has prol3ably been eight or ten feet high, and may have been a 
representation of the tribal ensign or coat of arms. Some have thought 
that it was an object of worship, but there is nothing in the surroundings 
that will justify such a theory. There may have been, and probably was 
a small temple of worship on Fort Hill, but not here. 

I think that several of the mounds in Union might be seen from this 
position if the timber were removed from the hills south of the Raccoon 
Valley. From this point we selected several other distant elevations, on 
which, we thought, there ought to be some kind of artificial works to jus- 
tify the theory we were about to adopt. Some of these we have since vis- 
ited and found mounds of greater or less magnitude at each point. We 
next visited an elevation about a mile south of Union Station, on the old 
farm of Henry Hillbrant, deceased. Here is a double-walled fort, about 
seventy-five rods in diameter, with two fine mounds inside of it. The walls, 
with the ditch between them, have occupied a base of some fifty feet. 
There is some forty rods of the circumvalation that is in the timber and 
has not been ploughed, but the balance of it has been in cultivation about 
forty years and is in many places nearly effaced so that it is at present dif- 
ficult to determine how many or where the openings were, but from 
appearances I think there have been gates or openings to the north, the 
east and the southeast, toward three fine springs that are some thirty or 
forty rods distant at the base of the hill. From the present appearance, 
one, if not all of these springs, may have at some former period broken out 
of the side hill near to if not within the line of the works, but at present 
they are all at the base of the hill. The prospect from this elevation is 
very fine, and embraces nearly the same territory as that from the mound 
on the Infirmary Farm, with a fine additional view to the south, and a 
view of a portion of Cherry Valley, that is intercepted by hills from those 
mounds north of the railroad. The fine mound near the site of the old 
Twining mill on the Raccoon branch of Licking river, the mounds in the 
upper part of Cherry Valley, and those in the Auter Creek Valley, near 
the old English mill, as w^ell as the works at the Fair Grounds, and others 
on the Cherry Valley, all would come under the view from this elevation, 
though from five to seven miles distant. From this point the hHis south of 
I^ewark appear to be in a Valley, while those farther east appear to loom 
up above them. From this elevation, I selected some seven or eight ol)- 
jective points or elevations, lying to the south and southwest, and ranging 
from one to six miles distant from this point of observation, on which I 
thought there should be mounds or watchtowers to effect a complete v iew 
of the whole face of the country, especially to overloook the great valle y of 
the Pataskala river above Hebron, but on none of which did I know of the 
existence of any artificial works. I was sufficiently well acquainted with 
the country to know in what particular neighborhood each of these eleva- 
tions was situated, and to satisfy myself on this point, I obtained a horse 
and started to examine those several locations. On thefirst I found a fort. 



6 



(so called), about two hundred feet in diameter, and a mound in the middle 
of it. This is on the farm of Aaron Hillbrant, and has been in cultivation 
for many years, but still is well defined. The second point was a ridge on 
the old John KufFner farm, about one and a half miles northeast from 
Licking Church. On the west end of the ridge I found a fine mound 
some ten to fifteen feet high, and about forty rods east of it is an oblong, 
oval fort one hundred and fifty by two hundred feet in diameter, and on 
the east end of the ridge, and about a half mile from the former, is an- 
other fine mound, and the remains of an artificial pool near to it. This 
pool has been about one hundred feet in diameter, and the bank thrown up 
to form the pool well defined, but has at one point been swept away, so as 
to nearly drain the pool. The top of the ridge where this is situated is so 
narrow that the water falls ofi* to the north and south from the banks of 
the pool. With the broken part restored, this pool would still be some 
six feet deep. These works are all in the timber, and have not been dis- 
turbed by the plough. My fourth point was a high hill, a half mile west 
of Licking Church, on James Black's land. Here, too, is a fine mound that 
has recently been opened in search of treasure. My fifth point was on 
Thomas Stone's farm. Here too is a mound that can be seen in some di- 
rections for several miles. My sixth was a ridge lying between the residence 
of William Moore and that of Joseph Khodes. On the east end of this 
ridge have been two small mounds, that have been nearly blown away by 
the Vvdnds, and near the west end there is another small mound. The sev- 
enth was on the lands of Mr. H. Kagy, near to the former residence of 
the late Col. W. W. Gault. Here, too, is a mound ; but the last three or 
four mounds have the appearance of never having been finished. My next 
point Avas on the high lands, in the vicinity of Nelson Buckland's. This 
point I did not visit, but was informed by Christopher Winters, Esq. , that 
there is one on his farm, which joins that of Mr. Buckland. I put up over 
night with my old friend and associate of my youth, James Wells, Esq., 
who with his excellent wife were pioneer children, and enter fully into the 
spirit of these pioneer resurrections. May they live to the full close of the 
century, so much of whose toils and triumphs they have already shared. 
My next point was on the west line of the township, and south of the C. O. 
Eailroad, in the vicinity of where Asa Brown lives. This is usually called 
a low, wet, beach country, but is in reality an elevated plain or ridge, that 
marks itself clearly on the horizon, when viewed from other distant eleva- 
vations. I started for Mr. Brown's and traveled up the Pataskala or 
south branch of Licking river, to the town line. Near the banks of the 
river I found several small mounds, but I found my principle observatory, 
or signal mound, on the farm of Mr. Clark, a half mile south of Mr. 
Brown's. I again called on Mr. Brown, to whom I was already indebted 
for many items in my Pioneer Paper, but I did not find Mr. Brown so 
well posted on the mound question, and perhaps disposed to be a little 
skeptical as to my theory. But after spending an hour very pleasantly, 
and partaking of an excellent dinner with a wedding party, I again started 
north on the town line till I crossed the railroad. Here we found mounds 
on both sides of the township line. From here we traveled west and north 
till we reached the old Columbus road from Granville, near to the residence 
of Col. John C. Aiward. On this trip I found several mounds, some in 
the vicinity of Ezekiel Cunningham, Esq., but the largest is on the farm 



7 



of Zephaniah Alward. The summit of this would command the view of 
a large scope of country if the timber were removed, and signals could be 
easily exchanged between this and those on the hills near Hebron, or with 
those about Union Station, and perhaps with not more than one repeating, 
to Columbus, I put up with Mr. John Deeds, on York street, and spent 
one day in this vicinity, and found several mounds. From here I trav- 
eled south and crossed the South Fork into ^tna Township, and down the 
county line, south of the Bloody Kun Swamp to the Baltimore Koad, thence 
to Hebron, and along the East line of the township, back to Union Sta- 
tion. In this trip, I sometimes laid down fences and rode through farms, 
and sometimes would leave my horse and walk a mile to examine some ob- 
jective point, and I have found these mounds everywhere on this territory, 
both on the hills and plains, in sufficient number to overlook the Avhole 
surface of the land, and I do not believe that within the boimds of my re- 
search there can be found a single fifty acre lot that can not be viewed from 
some one or more of these artificial mounds. I have examined the location 
of more than one hundred, and have not found a single exception to 
the rule that each one is so situated as to command a view, more or less of 
which cannot be seen from any other, except in a few instances where they 
were double or in pairs. This rule, however, would not hold good where 
they are found on a level plain in clusters, which is sometimes the case. 
On this trip I met with Mr. Jesse Thompson, of Hebron, but formerly of 
Fairfield county, Ohio, who informed me that when he first settled on Walnut 
Creek, in Fairfield county, about the beginning of the present century, 
there was a graded road, easily traced in the timber; that it was some 
thirty or forty feet wide between the ditches, and appeared to be as old as 
the forts and mounds, and he always thought it to be a road leading from 
the works near Newark to those at Circleville, as it was on a line between 
those points. But I have met with nothing of the kind, nor do I suppose 
that, in the present improved state of the country it could be found. 

There are some of these mounds that appear to be in an unfinished state, 
and some that must have been intended to answer some other purpose than 
that usually assigned them, or of signal points. There are several mounds 
on the lands of Mr. Dunlevy, and some of peculiar character. There irs 
one west of the public road that is by way of eminence called ''the mound." 
because of its being larger than any other in that vicinity, that I will try 
to describe. It is situated a half mile north of the creek and nearly a 
half mile west of the public road, on a gently undulating plain. This 
mound is about twenty rods in diameter at the base, and although it has 
been in cultivation for many years, and every effort made to reduce its 
heigh th by ploughing around it, (for it is too steep in its ascent for a team 
to pass over it), it is still some thirty feet high. On the south side of 
this mound there appears to have been a land-slide that has considerably 
reduced the grade of the ascent on that sido, throwing it a little out of a 
regular circle, and giving it rather a senii-obkile form. On the north side, 
there has been^ a narrow graded road for ascending the mound. This has 
been nearly destroyed by cultivation, but still can be seen. But the great 
curiosity in connection with this mound, and a peculiarity that I have 
net found in any other, is the remains of a massive vault in the southwest 
part of the mound, that has extended nearly or quite to its center. From 
the present appearance, this vault must have been not less than sixty by 



8 



one liiindred fefet, and possibly much more than that. By its falhng in it 
has left the top of the mound in the form of a crescent or semi-circle, and 
doubtless has greatly reduced its altitude. I think that the bottom of the 
vault has been nearly on a level with the surrounding plain. There also 
appears to have been a narrow subterranean passage through the mound, 
from the north side of the mound to the vault. This is indicated by a nar- 
roAv sink in the walls of the mound, that extends from the vault to the 
northern extremity of the mound. This transverse sink in the wall is yet 
clearly manifest, though the plough has passed over it several times. The 
length of this subterranean passage to the main cave or vault, must have 
been nearly two hundred feet. How the roof of this great artificial cavern 
may have been sustained, w^hether by an arch of sun-dried brick, or other- 
wise, is left to conjecture ; but if all other mysteries were solved that now 
surround some of these works, we could soon find means to sustain the roof 
of the caverns. Some thirty or thirty-five rods south of the mound is an 
excavation of considerable extent, from which a portion of the material to 
erect this pile w^as doubtless obtained. The soil of this mound is very fer- 
tile, while a portion of the surrounding plain is comparatively sterile. 
There are other tumuli around this at various distances that are in plain 
view from this. Among them are some in an unfinished state, but oth- 
ers are complete. But none other possessed the threefold character of 
watchtower, signal point and magazine for stores. From a half mile 
to a mile and a quarter to the northeast from this smgular mound, is a 
series of knobs, or tumuli, of not less than fifty on an area of some three 
hundred acres of land. Most of these have always been considered by the 
citizens natural elevations, though there are among them several well de- 
fined artificial mounds, and some things in others that give them the 
appearance of a series of artificial works, or perhaps rather, natural eleva- 
tions with artificial termini. While looking among these hillocks, w^hich 
range from eight to fifty feet in heighth, and of various forms, I 
noticed that fiom the side of one of them a tree had fallen, that had turned 
up a root of some six feet in depth, which would reach to the level of the 
surrounding plain. This I examined, and found that it had brought up 
from the bottom a stratum of rich black soil, apparently of drift foimation, 
while above it w^as a mixture of clay loam and gravel. This mound was 
not less than a hundred feet above the alluvium or bottoms of Auter Creek, 
and nearly a mile distant from its channel. This stratification of earth in 
this tree root showed not only that this was an artificial tumulus, but that 
it had been erected on the original surface soil. Not more than two hun- 
dred feet from this is found the largest mound that I have seen in the county, 
or that I have ever seen, except Everman's Mound, in Jasper county in the 
State of Illinois. But there are in this State some larger mounds. This is 
nearly round, between three and four hundred feet in diameter at the base, 
and, I should think, fifty feet high. There are two or more other well de- 
fined artificial mounds on my father's old farm, now owned by Wesley Belt, 
but the greater portion of these elevations are on lands that were owned, 
when I left this State, by Reuben Linnel, Justin Hillyer and James Cun- 
ningham, all of w^hich I believe is now owned by Mr. F. Dunlevy, 

There are among these knobs some ponds of water which I think are 
artificial pools. Though the land there is generally quite porous, and the 
^vater passes away quick]y, still, from some cause, some of these pools are 



... . ■ ' , ' f 

very retentive, and hold water neai4y or quite the year round. As wc; g6 
west from this singular cluster of elevations, along the line of Union and 
G/*anville Townships, we find qilite a number of mounds, some of which 
are clearly in an unfinished state while others are neatly and scientifically 
completed. 

If I now resided among these Works as I did in former years, and felt 
the interest in them that I have since the middle of April last, I should 
investigate them with as much care as I was capable of. I recollect to have 
seen, while residing in this State, other fine mounds in different parts of 
this county, particularly in the townships of St. Albans, Burlington and 
McKean ; and in Mr. Smucker's "Historical Sketches" we are informed 
that they are found quite numerous in the townships of Licking, Bowling 
Green, Franklin, and Hopewell. Some of these are represented to be on 
a grand scale, and of a peculiar and interesting character. Several of 
these mounds were composed wholly of stone, and very large. AVe have 
also seen them down the Licking Valley as far as Zanesville,and on Jonathan's 
Creek, also east of Ln,ncaster in the county of Fairfield, and in the vicinity 
of Columbus in Franklin county. These all seem to have belonged to the same 
series or cluster of works. 

I find in a late publication by John C. VanTramp, entitled, ''Life in 
the West, with a view of the States and Territorial Kegions of our West- 
ern Empire," an elaborate report of "A Party of Literary and Scientific 
Gentlemen from Natchez," who examined the works on the Mississippi be- 
low that city in May 1838 ; and another from a "Tourist," describing the 
works on the Great American Bottom, in the State of Illinois, below the 
city of St. Louis, that are very interesting as literary productions, and if 
the design of their publication had been none other than to advertise the 
literary skill and ability of their authors, they were commendable and 
worthy of perusal, but as to their throwing any new light on the subject, as to 
their nature and origin, or ;of the original design of these works, that will 
at all harmonize with the unbiased understanding of thinking men that 
have ever been familiar with these strange works, — it is not there ; but on 
the contrary some of their conclusions are rather laughable. 

In nearly or quite all these mounds that hav^ been carefully examined, 
more or less broken pottery has been found, and in the small mounds clustered 
together on level plains, many human bones, sometimes mingled with the 
bones of beasts, of birds and of fishes. But in the scattered mounds, or 
in those on the hilltops, but few human bones are found. It is often the 
case that bones are found near the surface on the sides of the large mounds. 
These were doubtless placed there by some of our wandering tribes of In- 
dians, long since the erection of the mounds, while some of those at the bottom 
of the mounds were likely placed there at the building of the work, or in a 
vault that may have been provided when the mound was first erected. 
We are informed by Doctor F. H. Jennings, late of Muskingum county, 
that he had seen one or two mounds opened that distinctly showed the re- 
mains of vaults in them, in which bones and other relics were found. 

Since we became interested in this mound question, Mr. Isaac Smucker 
placed in our hands "The Writings of Caleb Atwater, published by the 
author,'* in 1833, which treats extensively on these mysterious works of 
antiquity. This is a work which I never had read till now ; and when I 
think of the extended investigations of Mr. Atwater, of his abilities as an 



10 



antiquariiin, and of the renown of those learned men, whom he has called 
to his aid, it looks like presumption in me to attempt to present a single 
idea to the world, on a subject so intricate, that would in th*e least conflict 
with the apparently satisfactory conclusions of these learned writers. But, 
to my understanding, the military, the mortuary, and the sacrificial ideas 
gieem to have prevailed in the minds of all these writers, in nearly or quite 
all of their investigations, to such an extent that w^e think that their pre- 
possessions of thought have led them in some respects into erroneous con- 
clusions. And, though I may subject myself to the derision of the learned, 
who may esteem themselves more wise on this subject, I will venture to 
cast my thoughts **upon the waters," and let them sink or swim, as they 
may favorably or unfavorably impress the minds of thinking men. I am 
satisfied that a great amount of error prevails in our country in regard to 
those antiquities, and if I shall but suggest a thought that will direct the 
wise into a channel of investigation that will develop light on the subject, 1 
shall feel that I have rendered a service to my country. 

We learn from the writings of Mr. Atwater that these works seem to 
have commenced about the head of our northern Lakes, thence down their 
southern border into western New York ; from thence in a southwestern 
direction along the streams, through the Mississipi Valley, and up the Gulf 
to the City of Mexico. He also gives us diagrams of most of the principal 
works in Ohio, and some representations of curiosities and sacred images 
found elsewhere. In fact, Mr. Atwater, unlike the writers in VanTramp's 
work, manifests a stronger desire to arrive at the truth than to captivate 
by literary flourishes or by picturesque imagery. I have been both de- 
lighted and benefitted by the perusal of his writings. His great research 
into the ancient history of the old world, both sacred and profane ; his 
careful and apt comparisons of the tumuli of the various ages and na- 
tions of the earth, their origin, nature, general character, location and 
use, from which to draw conclusions as to the origin and design of our 
own mysterious antiquities, is truly interesting, ingenious and instructive. 
But notwithstanding this evidence of great learning, skill and research, I 
still think that preconceived military and sacrificial ideas and mythological 
history has had too much to do in the conclusions that have been drawn 
from these premises. For I can see in the larger proportion of these works 
nothing in the nature of military defence, but little of the sacrificial, and 
the mortuary, merely incidental except where they are found in clusters on 
level plains. These works are found very numerous in the State of Wis- 
consin, extending up the west shore of Lake Michigan, from near Chicago, 
to Sheboygan, from Lake Winebago, down the Rock River valley to Fulton 
on the Mississippi, in the State of Illinois, and from Milwaukie across the 
State down the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi. And in vol. HI, ot 
the historical collections of Wisconsin, page 178, in a paper by " Alfred 
Brumon, of Prairie Du Chien" we are informed that there are in Craw- 
ford County alone more than a thousand of these works. Who also says, 

the fact that human bones have been found in some of them, is no evi- 
dence that they were erected as tombs for the honored dead, because the 
Aborigines found here by the whites, have long been in the habit of bury- 
ing their dead in them, and as many of these tumuli have been opened with» 
•ut finding either bones or any thing else in them but soil, the presumption 



11 



13 very strong that the bones sometimes fourd in them are from the inter- 
ments of the Indians, who more recently occupied the country." Mr. 
Brunson, presents various arguments to prove that they were not erected 
as tumuli for the dead. The mass of the works in Wisconsin, are s^^id to 
be representations of animals ; and Mr William R. Smith " President of 
the State Historicrl Sociely, of Wisconsin," in the third volumn of the 
History of AVisconsin, (page 263.) After coming to a conclusion directly 
the opposite of that of Mr. Brunson, and speaking of the total ignorance of 
the Indian Tribes as to their origin or design, uses the following language : 

Why should not these animal-shaped mounds be considered as possessing 
a strictly heraldic character ? There would be little difficulty in assigning 
to them such a symbolic meaning ; if they could be considered as the final 
resting places of such Indians as bear the names of. Little Turtle, the Bear, 
the Buffalo, the Eagle, the Little Crow, the Watchful Fox , the Snake, the 
Deer, the Warrior, the Black Hawk, the W^olf, the Panther, and the Ali- 
gator ; many of the mounds resemble figures to which such nominclatures 
may be well applied. 'But these Earth-works belong to a period when a 
different race existed ; and yet the names of individuals, and of Tribes or 
clans, may have been in like manner conferred and held, in ancient as in 
modern times." Here is a theory that I have seen advanced by no other 
writer, and although it may have some apparent plausibility when applied 
to the works of that particular locality, it could not have any general ap- 
plication to our American Antiquities. There are some twelve to fifteen 
authors represented, or quoted in these works of the Historical Society, of 
Wisconsin, si'Al no two of them agree, except in the military theory. And 
this is taken for granted by nearly all, without attempting to present a 
single argument to sustain it. We are fu)'ther informed by those Wiscon- 
sin writers, that these w^orks are generally located on high elevations, that 
command an extensive view of the surrounding country, just as the circu- 
lar or pyramidal mounds are found in this state. And I can see no more 
to justify the military theory in these animal shaped turmuli of the north- 
west, than lean in the round, and angular works in the more southern 
portions of the Mississippi valley ; let any thinking person, for a moment 
reflect on the idea of a fort for military defence, or protection, one, or even 
two hundred feet in diameter, of eaSy approach at every point, or of a 
mound erected a quarter of a mile from dry land, in a lake of water, being 
.erected for a place of retreat, and security from their enemies in time of 
war, when it would have required, as many men as could have stood upon 
the mound, two generations to have erected the w^ork, to say nothing 
about the want of stores to stand a siege in such a place, while the enemy 
had control of the main land, such a theory is simply preposterous, yet 
such was the deliberate conclusion of a " party of Literary and Scientific 
Gentlemen from Natchez." I suspect however, that ^'Col. Cognae, or Capt 
Bourbon/' had more to do in arriving at this conclusion, than either, Na- 
poleon Scott, or Hardee. 

I have sometimes thought that we free American Fathers were too apt, 
when vvefiad that we have sa boy, that is too laxy to make' his -living by 
farming, or any other industrial pursuit, to send him to college with the 
view of crowding him into ;soi»e of the learned professions. But too often 
lK>iE|it^Bfc^ll^e withoqt mj .<^fiisita ^v^^ m% tense it, Uit a%radn- 



12 



ated fool. But feeling his importance with a Diploma in his pocket, he 
drives ofF,after the first shadow that flits before hmi, and brings up with 
results similar to the above, you will find a few of them in nearly all the 
Learned Professions, but our political ranks are over run with them, and 
in our military ranks, not a few, but this is not the question at issue. 
Nearly all the writers on our antiquities, concede to our mound-builders, a 
pretty high state of intellectual culture, and who have left us very few rel- 
jcs, or evidences of Paganism, yet all that touch upon that subject at all, 
speak of them as a worshiping people, and some think there is satisfactory 
evidence of their knowledge of the true God. But our author's ideas of 
their mode of worship are governed by their notions as to their orgin. 
They usually ascribe to them, the mode of worship practiced by the peo- 
ple and country, from which they suppose them to have originated. They 
also concede the idea that there has been some cities, and possibly some 
large cities, and that some of the Tumuli, may have been used as 
Watch Towers, in time of war, or insurrection. But that such use w^as 
only incidental, or emergent. But what evidence they have that there 
ever was such a state of war, or insurrection as to make such use necessary, 
they fail to tell us, and we are left to infer that they admit the watch-tower 
theory, because the works so strongly indicate that character, that they 
cannot ignore it, yet they are so strongly wedded to the military, and the 
mortuary theories, that they cannot give them up. W ith due difference, to 
the great ability of many of these learned writers, we think that some of 
their conclusions are based upon observations too superficial to entitle them 
to much credit. To prove this we need but call your attention to some of the 
writings on this subject. 

Mr. Atwater says that many of the writers on these antiquities, never saw 
the works themselves, or if they did, it was only from some public convey- 
ance, in hasty flight through the country, and consequently they knew 
nothing about them, and their representations are not reliable. This no 
doubt, in some instances is true. But those newspaper correspondents, and 
other persons seeking literary renown, are not the only persons chargable 
with having arrived at conclusions, and published opinions, based upon ob- 
servations quite too superficial. Mr. Atwater himself, with all his care, is 
not safe from this charge, for in his report at the antiquities of Licking 
County, though he made a personal survey of them, he seems to have but 
little knowledge of their extent and diversity of character. He gives iis 
very correct diagrams of a portion of the works on Cherry Valley, and 
speaks of one or two mounds, south of Newark, and some pitts below New- 
ark, and south of Licking River. These he calls the works in Licking 
County, while they constitute but a very small prcp^.tion of those works. 
He also says, these works are situated on an elevated plain ; forty or fifty 
feet above the alluvium, or creek bottoms and geneially forty feet above 
the country around it, while in fact they are situated on a low plain, not 
more than forty or, -fifty feet above the present w^orn channels, of the stream 
and nearly surrounded by high hills, and on which are but little, if any 
less than one hundred mounds that look down upon that valley, or plain 
and its works, none of which does it appear that Mr. Atwater had any 
knowledge of ; besides this, those works extend nearly or quite all over the 
Tc^intiyj a|^id fea^t ^ntoj, Mciskii;igx^m, Oosl5;oc1ion. Opnntsei, fernd math. 



IS 



I doubt not if carefully examined, would be found in a continuous line to 
the Mississippi ; and if their builders did not constitute one great Nation, 
or Kingdom, they consJ^ufced several large cities, with extensive country 
surroundings, and enjoyed such fraternal relations with each other, as to 
leave us no trace of the lines of division or any marks of discord, or of 
bloody wars. But on the contrary, they have left us an abundance of mon- 
umental testimony, that there has been a well arranged, and thoroughly 
organized civil government, For we do not hesitate to express the opinion 
that the great mass of those antiquities are the monuments of peace, and 
not of war, as is generally supposed, my reasons for this opinion is their 
want of adaptation to military purposes. 

Nearly all of the circumvalations, or fores, so called, are constructed 
with the moat, or ditch inside of the wall, and many of them are very 
small, ranging from one to two hundred feet in diameter, and of easy ap- 
proach at any, and all points on the outside. Now to call such works mili- 
tary fortificati ons, is not only absurd, but supremely ridiculous, I care 
not what principle of warfare, you may assign to these mound builders ; or 
what weapons they may have used ; whether the primitive Sliug, the Bow 
and Arrow, the Javelin, the Dar , the Sword, or Cutlass, or any kind of 
explosive weapons. For any, and all of those, they were useless, as places 
of security, or for defence. Just so, in regard to many of the mounds. 
Many writers from Avhom we might expect rational conclusions, when they 
could find nothing to justify calling them monuments for the dead, they 
would adopt, and publish the much more absurd theory, that they were 
erected, for places of retreat, and security in lime of war, and for batteries 
of defense, while none of them gives us the slightest intimation as to what 
kind of batteries could have been used by these ancient people, that could 
have been adapted to such works, still this was the deliberate conclusion 
of the "party of Literary and Scientific Gentlemen from Natchez." But 
these men are not alone in adopting that theory. It is quite common all 
over the country, but the fact that the uneducated masses have adopted 
an absurd theory, is not a sufficient reason that learned men should do the 
same thing, and confirm the unwise in their error, simply because they, the 
learned, cannot find rational use for these works. Let them rather ac- 
knowledge that they know nothing about it. That would set the mass to 
thinking, and investigating with more care. I am informed by William 
Lockard, Esq. , of Clark County, Ills. , but formerly a ciazen of Ross Coun- 
ty, in this State, that the largest and most noted Tumulus, in that part of 
the country, is a triangular mound, on the point of land between, and at 
the confluence of the point, and Sciota Kivers. That it is located on the 
alluvium, and at the rivers sometimes overflows the, plain for a considera- 
ble distance above and around this singular tumulus. That it contains 
an area of about ten acres of land, and is some twenty-five to thirty feet 
high, and level on the top, and was covered wir ii J t i"' svcamore and other 
timber, as was the river bottom, on which it was located. And while he 
resided there a man erected a house on the top of it, and sunk a well to a 
level of the surrounding plain, and that broken Pottery and other evidences 
of its artificial construction was found all through it. And further, that 
the ascent was very steep all round it,^ except at the upper, and most accut3 



14 



the Scioto, are noticed in Mr. Atwater's work, or any other that I have 
seen. I have introduced the account of this mound here because of its 
singular character, and to say that this too, is called a military work. But 
can any person conceive of any instrument of war, previous to the discov- 
ery of Gun Powder, that would have been adapted to the defence of an 
extensive plain from such a point ! If not, why should we violate the hu- 
jnan understanding by assigning them a use for which they are in no way 
adapted, and that too where none of the surroundings will justify the 
theory, while we may assign them a civil use in complete harmony with 
their nature and the usages of the age to which they belong. The form of 
this mound would indicate that it was sacred ground, or an emblem of du- 
ty, and may have been the foundation of a great temple. It was a common 
custom, among the ancient nations of the earth, to carefully guard the lives 
and dignity of their rulers, by prohibiting the promiscuous approach of their 
subjects. This is still the case with some nations ; it is done in various 
ways ; the most common, is by military guards, who were chosen with ref- 
erence to their good will, and attachment to the person or thing to be 
guarded. But in the great city of the Assyrian Empire, (Babylon,) the 
Palace of the ruling Prince, though pro jected from the approach of enemies 
by the great wall of the city, was also protected from the near approach of 
his own people, by three additional strong walls, surrounding the Palace 
within the ciiy. It was much the same with the Jews; although they 
were the chosen people of God, and reputed to be the Righteous Nation of 
the Earth, and were entrusted with the secrets of Jehovah, which when 
unfolded by the fullness of time, were to become a blessing to the world, 
still they could not be trusted to govern themselves by their moral sensi- 
bilit'es, but were limited in their approaches to their own sacred Tabernacle 
and their Great Temple, by the outer courts that surrounded them. But 
we need not name isolated cases, for the principle has been common to all 
ages. If any of us to-day were to attempt to visit Si. Peter's at Rome, the 
Mosque of Omar, at Jerusalem, the Palace of Napoleon, in France, or of 
Victoria in England, we should find them all strictly guarded. Just so with 
the ancient people that erected those American Antiquities, they understood 
human nature well enough, to know that it was better to spend money, and 
labor to maintain the peace and dignity of their government, by guarding 
against trouble , than to spend it to quell inf^urrection. Hence these nu- 
merous monuments of their wisdom and greatness spread all over our lands. 
And it is left for us, without the aid of letters, to study the theory of their 
government from these mute relics of a pre-historic age. Though we should 
fail a thousand times, in our eflfbrts to fully comprehend their nature and 
utility, let us not give up the research, but diligently pursue the inquiry, and 
encourage the people living among these works, to carefully observe, and 
preserve every thing that may tend to throw light upon the subject, and in 
due time report their discoveries to your Pioneer Associations, to be laid up 
in your Archives for scientific investigation, one object may throw light 
upon another, until light and truth may crown your efforts. . My own theo-^ 
ry in regard to these strange works has been shadowed forth in what I 
have already said, I have told you that I looked upon them as the monu- 
ments of peace and not of war. The circumvalations, or enclosures of 



15 



Worship, and eiicloaures of' Magazines 61* Public Stores, of t*\ih\\c Vark^^ 
or Pleasure Grounds, while others were for Athletic exercises and other 
public games. We find the works varied in their character, and well, 
adapted to these several uses. Those whos6 nature indicate the location of 
seals of royalty, or of temples of worship, are so constructed that the out- 
side multitude could easily approach to within a suitable distance to offer 
their adulation to the Princes, or their adoration to the Gods, and witness 
the sacrificial ofierings of the Priests in the Temples, yet the deep moat in- 
side of the wall, guarded those sacred precincts from the press of an enthu- 
siastic, or a sacreligious multitude. The same may be said, as to the adap- 
tation of those whose nature and location indicate other uses, whether for 
|)leasUre, ot fot the protection of public stores. In some places these works 
are numerous and expensive, and indicate a crowded state of Society, or 
rather a large city population. And the works gradually grow more sparse, 
as they recede from these apparently central points, but with occasional 
minorVusters that indicate the location and protection of subordinate Pul- 
ers, the locations of Magazines, etc. , yet we find no signs of discord or of 
separate independence. Such a great central City do we think once occu- 
pied the hills and valleys of Licking; and which centered on Cherry valley. 
To the greater part of the mounds we assign the character of Watch-Tow- 
ers, and signal stations, from which the watchmen kept a constant look-out 
and by concerted signals, could report any incipient move towards Insur- 
rection, or insubordination to the Laws, as well as to announce the signs 
of the times, or the approach of danger from the elements, or from any 
other source. The location of these mounds not only indicate such a use, 
but is such as to greatly facilitate such a mode of communication with ra- 
pidity and certainty. The idea of such an attachee to the Government as 
a watchman is not novel, for such an office was common among the primi- 
tive oriental governments ; and judging from the writings of Isaiah and 
Ezekiel, they were found among the Jews at a later date than that of the 
erection of these American Antiquities. And in an age when letters were 
unknown, such watchmen, and such a system of signal communications, 
were of great importance in the government of a large tribe or nation. 
There are in some places, usually on level plains, many small mounds that 
were doubtless erected as tumuli for the distinguished dead, while there are 
others that seem to combine several uses. But the greater portion of the 
scattered mounds were, doubtless, for the tise we have assigned them, and 
constituted a system of communication extending from the center to the 
circumference of the Kingdom, equalled only by the modern telegraph. 
These watchmen were doubtless among the learned men of the nation or 
tribe, and their position an honorable and an honored one in the King- 
dom, for they must have constituted the principal medium of communica- 
tion between the different and distant portions of the Kingdom. And hav- 
ing been educated for this special office, it was probably held for life, and I 
should not think it incredible to suppose that vaults may have been prepar- 
ed in the base of their watch-towers to receive their mortal remains, after 
having been worn out in the service of their country, that they might, after 
death, continue to enjoy a relation to their honored position in life. This 
may account for the few human bones found in some of those scattered tu- 
muli. The mathematical skill manifest in the construction of some of these 



16 



Works, as well as the fine topographical ettj^neenng sho^'t^n in the location 
of these signal mounds, indicate a pretty high degree of culture, for that age of 
the world, and I think conclusive evidence that they were not erected by 
the ancestors of our native Indians, as it is not probable that they ever ad- 
vanced beyond the hunter-grade of civilization in which we found them, 
while our mound-builders must have been much in advaiice of this. These 
signal mounds are not always found on the highest hills, but where they 
w^ill command the most complete view of the whole land, whether below 
or above their location, and where they can be seen by the greatest number 
of other mounds, by view\s through valleys, or between distant hill-tops. 
This feature is an important one and cannot be the result of accident. On 
the contrary, it shows a careful economy in locating them, so as to attain 
the object of their erection with the least amount of labor possible. This 
would have been needless had their design been other than that w^e have 
assigned them. They would, in many instances, have much better suited 
the theory of ''worship in high places," or of ''monuments for the dead," if 
they had been differently situatf d, from that in which we find them We, 
in one instance, found a mound on an offset or table on the hill-side, where 
it commanded the view of an adjacent valley that could not have been seen 
from the top of the hill, while there was none on the hill-top, seventy-five 
feet above the plain or level table on which the mound was situated. And 
yet this mound was but little less conspicuously situated in its relation to 
other mounds than if it had been on the top of the hill. Again, the size of 
these "Tumuli" are to a considerable extent governed by the nature of the 
ground on which they are located. On high, narrow pointed, natural ele- 
vations, they are much less than when the hill-top presents a broad, level 
surface ; also, on gently undulating plains they are larger and taller than 
when situated on the hills or on smooth plains. Another feature that I 
have noticed is: that their number is governed by the character of the face 
of the country where they are situated. On rough, broken lands they are 
numerous, while on smooth plains they are but few. Still where they are 
found at all, they are found in sufficient numbers to overlook the whole 
surface of the land. In our Prairies of Eastern Illinois, there are but few, 
except along the banks of the Wabash, but the few found away from the 
larger streams are generally large and tall, and so situated as to overlook 
a large district of country. Now, we would ask, why all this kind of dis- 
crimination, if their primary object had been of a military character, or for 
altars for sacrificial, or as monuments for the distinguished dead. 

In fact such a theory is irreconcilable with the hnman understandmg of 
the nature and relation of things. The mind must be educated to such 
theories before it can see any thing in these works to justify them, that 
these ancient Americans, like the ancient Egytians, Phonicians, Assyrians, 
Chinese and other original Tribes, or Nations, may have been superstitious 
in some things, and behind the present age in the arts, and sciences, may 
be quite true, but that is no reason why we should attribute to them, intel- 
-lectual inconsistencies, that would sink them below the wild Tribes, that 
roved through our Forests when first found by the people of Europe. 
How many of us can give a rational account of the original design of the 
Pyramids of Egypt. We may think we know, but with an unbroken chain 
of History reaching nearly back to the probable period of their erection, we 



17 



still know but little about them, yet they are there, and were erected by 
the most learned nation of that age. No person pretends that they were 
military works though they are as well adapted to military purposes, as are 
our mounds. We have no fault to find with the representations given by 
Mr. Atwater and other distinguished men, of what they have seen and ex- 
amired. But we do object to their conclusions, when based upon such 
limited observations as is manifest in regard to the antiquities of Licking 
County. There are at least eight forts or circumvalations in the county 
that I know of, that are not noticed by any of those writers, except three 
that is mentioned by Mr. Smucker, and there cannot be less than three 
hundred mounds that are not noticed at all ; yet when they are viewed as 
a whole, they present a very different feature than when seen in isolated 
parts, though these parts may have been the most prominent portion of the 
works. They must be examined from the center to the circumference and 
the relations of the several parts to the whole as w^ell as the scientific har- 
mony of those relations, must be studied to fully comprehend their use. 
Let any person that is well acquainted with the face of the country inform 
himself as to the location of fifty or one hundred of these scattered mounds 
in Licking county, and then let him ascend a few of them, and imagine the 
timber all removed, and he will be astonished at the harmony of their rela- 
tions. Nearly all w^ill seem to be in plain view, from almost every point. 
A nd further that nearly all seem to have been built with reference to 
the works on Cherry Valley as a common center. Cherry Valley, is that 
part of the Licking Valley, west of the City of Newark, that lies l3etween 
the Pataskala, and the Raccoon branches of Licking River, extending from 
their junction up the Pataskala to the mouth of Auter Creek, and lip Rac- 
coon Creek some three miles to the range of hills dividing the Raccoon 
and Auter Creek Valleys. It is a beautiful plain, the soil is gravelly, but 
very fertile. It embraces about three thousand acres of land, and lies 
nearly in the shape of an equilateral triangle. On this plain is situated 
several of the largest and most singular artificial works to be found in the 
country. The principle one of these (so caUed) fortifications, which con- 
tains about forty acres of land, is owned and occupied, by the "Licking 
County Agricultural Society," and the place where they hold their anuual 
Fairs. This part of the valley seems to constitute a central point, in the 
extensive cluster of works, lying in this and the adjoining counties. And 
after becoming satisfied in my own mind, by observations from various 
elevated points, that the arrangement and location of the w^orks of Licking, 
would justify the theory that Cherry Valley w^as the central point, whence 
radiated the po^v er that controlled and gave vitality to this great city, whose 
inhabitants perhaps numbered but little less than the present population of 
the whole state. This beautiful valley and its works, began to assume an 
importance in this field of antiquities that I never had thought of before 
though familiar with with its curious works all my life. Now every antique 
artificial feature about it became an object of importance, that might ha^ e 
WTapped up in it volumes of valuable history. Not having found anything 
in "Alligator Mound" that I thought would justify the idea of its being con- 
sidered an object of Idolitrous worship, and ha\dng found the triangle in 
several of these artificial wwks, Avhich is an ancient symbol of the True 
God. I concluded to again visit the great work owned by the agricultural 
society, and examine "Eagle Mound," I went there without any doubts about 



18 



finding the representation of an eagle spread out on the surface in the cen- 
ter of the area enclosed by these great walls. But when I came to exam- 
ine its form and proportions, I could not see the "Eagle," nor any thing 
that would justify the idea that the mound was ever intended to repre- 
^ sent any living thing. It could not have been intended to represent a bird 
because there is neither Head, Neck, or Tail, and the wings do not taper 
towards the points, but on the contrary are even larger towards the ex' 
trerae ends. And the abdominal dimentions are much too large to be in 
proportion with the other parts. While the Alligator mound below GranviUe 
?trikes conviction to the minds of all that see it, even at first sight, that it 
was intended to represent the great American Crocodile. It cannot but 
reqmi'e a great stretch of the imagination, to find any animal characteris- 
tics whatever in this so called "Eagle Mound." At least, such were my 
impressions; my feelings would have harmonized much better with the idea 
of calling it a representation of a man, in the act of swimming without any 
legs, which it might be said to represent pretty fairly. But I do not think 
that it was intended to represent any thing of the kind. But on the con- 
trary, that it is the ruins of a massive Temple, or Palace of a ruling Prince, 
that has been erected with perishable material, such as imburned brick. 
The main part of it appeai-s to have been about fifty by one hundred and 
eighty feet, with vestibule and tower in front, and wings extending to the 
rigH and left some sixty feet in length from the main building. The 
wings fall back some twenty to twenty-five degrees from a right angle 
with the main building, and probably had Towers at the extreme ends. 
This is indicated by the larger pile of earth at the ends of the wings. My 
reasons for calling this the ruin of a large building is, Fii'st — Its form being 
that of a large building, with wings to the right and left and vestibule and 
tower in front. Second-— Its situation, it being a little in the rear of the 
center from the great gate of the court that surrounds it, and fronting the 
entrance, or gate of the court. J ust as I think a skillful draughts-man of 
any age would place such a building to be in harmony ^ith its surround- 
ings. In the third place, its materials. All the plain on which the^e 
works on Cheriy Valley are situated, is full of gravel, or public stones, even 
to the surface ; and the walls of the court that surrounds it are of the 
game character, while the mound or ruin, is composed of good brick-clay 
free from gravel, and foreign to any thing to be found in this vicinit3^ 
There is also another slight elevation of this same kind of clay outside of 
the court. It is situated to the right of the road, leading from the gate of 
the court towards the Pataskala, or South Fork of Licking River, and in- 
dicates the former existence as a Block of Buildings, or Guard Houses, 
that extended some three or four hundred feet from the walls of the court, 
to, and beyond the site, where the Trustees are preparing to erect a Hotel 
Building for the use of the Park. This bed of clay is from 12 to 16 inches 
deep, resting on gravel, while but a few feet from it, the gravel is found to 
come to the surface. Tliis debris lying as it does, by the side of the pass- 
way to the only entrance to this Royal Court, and between the parallel 
walls, that it is generally believed were erected to protect the passway from 
this sacred precinct to the river, is strongly suggestive of the location of a 
series of Guard Houses, to prevent the piX)miscuous entrance of improper 
persons, to this well guarded seat of royalty. This theory is so adverse to 
Tiny thing heretofore presented, in regard to this great work, b}^ anywiter 



19 



that lias treated upon these antiquities, so far as 1 liave any knowledge of, 
and this particular work having always been looked upon by the mass of 
those that have seen it, or seen Mr. Atwater's Diagram of these works, 
with such fixed military prepossession, I shall not wonder if many and per- 
haps among them some learned men, should denounce it as fanciful. But 
when any of my readers feels tempted to pass such a judgment, let them 
first go to work and get up a theory more in harmony with the works, and 
their surroundings, and with unbiased convictions of the human mind, then 
will I concede their right to denounce my notions. But in the absence of 
any thing better, I honestly believe that any common-sense man, that will 
critically examine these works and their surroundings, divested of all pre- 
possessions will find ten times as much to justify this as he will the military 
and "Spread Eagle" theory. We cannot review the fields of antiquities 
in the Eastern Hemisphere, nor in many parts of our own country, as oth- 
ers have done. But from what we have read, and what we have seen, we 
believe that the works of Licking county are a fair type of aU the works en 
this continent, of a similar date. But the question will naturally arise in 
the mind of many: 

Who were the people that erected these works ? and what has become 
of them, or of their decendants ? These questions are not necessarily con- 
nected with the primary object or our paper, and it would seem folly for me 
to advance any theory on that subject, when our most able Historians have pre- 
sented to the world such diverse opidions. Some have attributed them to 
Northmen, who they think reached our north-eastern coast about the sev- 
enth or eighth century of the christian era, others equally disposed to catch 
at straws think that they have found some Irish relics, and some Celtic, or 
perhaps rather some Hiberno-Celtic Hieroglyphics engraven on the rocks on 
our coast. While others have discovered and translated some old Scandin- 
avian manuscript records, that points out this country as New Ireland, set- 
tled by the Irish, about the year 1000 to 1003. WliUe Mr. Catlin ascribes 
them to the Welsh who migrated to this country, under "Madoe, Prince 
of Wales," in the fourteenth century, and who he traced by these monu- 
mental works, from the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi, and Ohio Riv- 
ers, and a remnant of whose decendants he finds in the Mandan Indians. 
In fact they have been ascribed to almost every European, and Asiatic 
Nation on the Earth. While Mr. Bancroft nearly scouts the idea of their 
being artificial works at all ; some of these notions are preposterous to the 
minds of persons that are at all familiar with those antiquities, for they do 
not at all harmonize with the age and character of the works. Mr. Atwa- 
ter, Mr. Breckenridge, and many other Scientific Antiquarians, have made 
laudable efforts, to discover their design, their age, and their nationality, 
from the relics that are found in and about them. But these too are so 
diverse in character, as to their age and nationality, that it is difficult to 
arrive at any satisfactory conclusion from that source. To show the diffi- 
culty arrising from this source, I will relate a fact given to me recently by 
Elder John Smock, of Bremen, in Perry county, but who was fifty one 
years a citizen of Muskingum county in Ohio. Elder Smock says, he is 
seventy-one years old, and when he was about twenty years old, while en- 
gaged in burning charcoal, on the Muskingum near Dresden, for the use 
of the Dresden Furnaces, he and seven others, prompted by curiosity 
opened a mound that was about eight feet high, situated in the Township 



20 



of Madison, about one mile north-east of Dresden. On doing so they found 
in the middle of the mound, and on a level with the surrounding plain, five 
humon skeletons, lying in a radiating po'^ition, with the feet towards the 
center. That with the bones, they found a large number of flint arrow 
points, some of them seven or eight inches long, and that they appeared to 
have been contained in a wooden box, that had entirely decayed. Also, a stone 
liammer, in shape like a shoe-hammer, with a groove around the middle of 
it by which to bend it to the handle, instead of an eye through it. Then 
^ ' ere was a blue marble pipe ; this he represented as being a plate of blue 
marble, about eight inches long, one and a half inches wide and a half inch 
thick, with the bowl in the middle of it. That there was three orfices of 
small size, drilled through to the bowl A'om each end, that a person could, 
and that he often had smoked through each and all of the six orfices. He 
says the pipe was nicely executed, with some ornamental w^ork on it. The 
pipe was claimed and held by Mr. Teeple Yaw, who was the oldest man of 
the party, who afterwards moved to Indiana. The fourth article discovered 
was a brass kettle, of about three gallons capacity ; this was bruised, and 
flattened by the weight of the earth on it, but its material not greatly in- 
jured. Fifth, an ax, rather a long bit and narrow; it was what is usually called 
the old Virginia or English style of ax, and of about four pounds weight. 
It was pretty badly rusted, but not so but what in distinctly showed the 
iron and steel, when ground to a smooth surface. Here are several articles 
found lying in juxtaposition at the bottom of this ancient tumulus, that 
evidently belong to ages, not less than three thousand years apart, and 
with the mode of burial, representing several nations. From which it may 
be seen that it would require close discrimination to determine the matter 
from this source. But . with aU these difliculties, this is probably the best 
source from which any definite conclusions can be drawn. If we were fully 
assured that those curiosities said to have been taken from the large stone 
mound south of Newark, in 1861, by Mr. Wyrick, were really found as 
represented, we should not hesitate to express the opinion that they were 
placed there by some of the "House of Israel," after the giving of the ''Law 
from Sinai," and the erection of the Tabernacle, and possibly after the 
building of Solomon's Temple. But we find that some of the best informed 
citizens of Licking county, do not think that the antiquity of these relics 
have been fully authenticated. But if these were fraudulent, there have 
been many relics found in and about these works that were not fraudulent, 
and Mr. Atwater, who has taken more pains to collect and compose the 
lessons taught by those relics, than any other writer, of whom I have any 
knowledge, thinks that the preponderance of testimony from that source is 
in favor of Asia, as several images representing their deities are decidedly 
oriental, principally from Hindoostan, and Southern Tartary. And fur- 
ther that the marks of civilization agrees with the civilization of this part 
of the world, at the probable period ot the arrival of the mound-builders 
in this country. Also that their stature and physiology are clearly Asia- 
tic, judging from their fossil remains, and he thinks clearly mark them as 
having sprung from the same division of the human race. Mr. Atwater 
also thinks, that they were an agricultural people. This he draws from 
the fact of their adherance to the rich alluvial districts of the country. I 
will not take it upon myself to criticise this theory, (and all that any person 
can give on this subject igbut theory.) Still I am inclined to favor a dif- 



21 



fei*ent opinion. That is that they were a Nation of Shepherds ; this I conclude 
from their uniform adherence to the water courses, secondly, though there 
is no evidence that they ever occupied what may reasonably be supposed to 
have been at that age of the world, comparatively sterile lands, they were 
not confined to the alluvial districts, but were spread out over a wide dis- 
trict of high rolling, and what we may suppose to have bean good pastural 
lands. Thirdly, they have left no remains of substantial dwellings, or of 
manufactories, such as belong to an agricultural nation, they were doubtless 
a migratory people. Though they may have continued in the same place 
for several generations, or even for centuries, still we think that like the de- 
cendants of the Ishmael, the mass of them always dwelt in tents. Hence 
W9 may be allowed to doabt their Chinese or Hindo origin. From Sears' 
History of China and India, we have reason to think that they of Asia 
were, like the Egyptians, an agricaltnral people from the start, and if our 
mound builders had emigrated from Eastern Asia after it had become so 
thickly populated, as to induce such migrations, we should probably have 
had some other evidences of such an origin. While the Pharaohs were 
building the Pyramids, the people of China were a refined, and highly cul- 
tivated nation of Silk Manufacturers, and we think that an emigration 
from such a society, b'ke the Druids of England, would have left some 
more unmistakable evidence of it, than we find in our American Antiquities. 
We think that these ancient Americans, like many other primitive nations 
had their origin in the general dispersion from the Plains of Shinar, and 
that the state of civilization to which they attained, like that of other ancient 
nations, was the natural growth, or development of their own system of 
mental culture, and not borrowed from any other division of the Earth. 
And while the Egyptians, and people of Eastern Asia became Farmers and 
manufacturers, some, as the Phonicians, became merchants, while the 
Americans, and some other divisions were devoted to a pastoral life. 

And others, still less inclined to improvement remained in the wild hun- 
ter State of civilization, a sample of which is found in our native American 
Indians, and whose ancestors we think were not likely at any age to have 
been more civilized than they were when first found by Europeans. From 
which you may infer that I do not believe that these wild tribes of aborig- 
ines or their ancestors had any thing to do with the erection of these works. 
But what has become of them, or their decendants ? This too is a question 
that we cannot give a definite answer. Whether they passed away by 
Pestilence, or Famine, or as did the inhabitants of the ^'Cities of the Plain," 
by the Fiat of Jehovah, in consequence of their sins, or from some other 
cause must be left to the developments of the future. But in this matter 
we are inclined to favor the theory of Mr. Atwater, and some others, who 
think their decendants are found in the Astecks who were found in Mexico 
when first invaded by the Spaniards, or in the native inhabitants of South 
America, and Peru, or in all of them. There seems to be almost as much 
uncertainty, as to the origin of these tribes, as there is in regard to the 
origin of our antiquities. While these people were found by the Europeans 
in a much higher state of civilization than our North American Indians, 
they were also found at the Southern terminus of this series of antiquities. 
The state of civilization in these tribes, as well as their size and physiology, 
are said to justify the opinion that they sprang from the same race that 
erected these works, and whose fossil remains are found in these tumuli. 



But whether this theory is correct or not ; this we do know, that at some 
pre-historic age of our continent, there has been a people here in vast num- 
bers, much more cultivated and civilized than those we found here, who 
have left their marks in these durable monuments, from whose mute lessons 
alone we are left to gather the ancient history of our country, and its mu- 
tations for a period of several thousand years. And though we may never 
fully comprehend their teachings, let us continue to carefully study the 
book before us, for soon we shall cease to have them to study. They are 
rapidly passing away by the sacreligious hands of civilization. This is all 
wrong. It is a species of vandalism that should not be allowed. They 
ought to be protected by state authority, as sacredly as the Pyramids of 
Egypt. But as this will not be done, let us as far as possible preserve 
them in written records, and faithfully transmit each successive ray of light 
that may break forth from them, to our successions, and not forgetting thai 
in the language of Kev. R. Smith, of Wisconsin. "We are setting in the 
midst of monuments tha t are dumb, let us watch, they may hereafter speak." 



